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Journal 2025-01-26 Sunday afternoon.
The worst of the winter weather is usually over in these parts by mid-January, but it's not unusual for one last blast to hit us around the end of January (between my birthday and Groundhog Day). From the forecast, it looks like this year will not disappoint. But I'm not complaining, as we've had generally fair (though chilly) weather the past couple of weeks.
This coming week will mark eight weeks at my new job. The commute to Portland is longer than I'd prefer, but it's not bad and I've gotten used to it. After the first week or two of parking in the company garage to the tune of 14$ a day, I've taken to commuting by MAX (the local light rail) and it's slower but much cheaper and more relaxing. I'd rather spend 45 minutes reading a book than 20 minutes staring at tail lights.
I've been keeping up the music practice on a daily basis. I find that it's already changing the way I listen to music - I pay more careful attention to the sounds of the chords, the melody, and the tempo, now that I'm actively engaged in practicing music as well as listening to it. I think it'll also be a good way to keep my brain and nervous system in shape.
I finished the final book in the Harry Potter series last weekend. I loved the books, and it's a very satisfying end. People who had read the books told me that the HP books get progressively darker towards the end, and it's true. Particularly the final chapters of HP7 - Deathly Hallows, with Fred's death, and the revelations about Dumbledore, and Harry confronting his own mortality. The description in Chapter 34 of Harry's internal world as he walks toward certain death is stunning. The series treats of that greatest of great themes, mortality: the whole plot hinges on Voldemort's fear of death and obsession with immortality, and constantly returns to the ways we imagine, or wish to feel, the presence of the departed in our lives: the Mirror of Erised, the ghosts, the animated (literally) figures in the pictures, and Harry summoning the dead with the Resurrection Stone. Jo (JK) Rowling has stated that the series drew much of its inspiration from the death of her mother, Anne, at the end of 1990.
I'm hoping to get back into creative writing of my own before long. Meanwhile, I'm continuing the weekly Torah summaries at least into Exodus, because I want to get myself firmly grounded in this most foundational of all literary works. [430]
This coming week will mark eight weeks at my new job. The commute to Portland is longer than I'd prefer, but it's not bad and I've gotten used to it. After the first week or two of parking in the company garage to the tune of 14$ a day, I've taken to commuting by MAX (the local light rail) and it's slower but much cheaper and more relaxing. I'd rather spend 45 minutes reading a book than 20 minutes staring at tail lights.
I've been keeping up the music practice on a daily basis. I find that it's already changing the way I listen to music - I pay more careful attention to the sounds of the chords, the melody, and the tempo, now that I'm actively engaged in practicing music as well as listening to it. I think it'll also be a good way to keep my brain and nervous system in shape.
I finished the final book in the Harry Potter series last weekend. I loved the books, and it's a very satisfying end. People who had read the books told me that the HP books get progressively darker towards the end, and it's true. Particularly the final chapters of HP7 - Deathly Hallows, with Fred's death, and the revelations about Dumbledore, and Harry confronting his own mortality. The description in Chapter 34 of Harry's internal world as he walks toward certain death is stunning. The series treats of that greatest of great themes, mortality: the whole plot hinges on Voldemort's fear of death and obsession with immortality, and constantly returns to the ways we imagine, or wish to feel, the presence of the departed in our lives: the Mirror of Erised, the ghosts, the animated (literally) figures in the pictures, and Harry summoning the dead with the Resurrection Stone. Jo (JK) Rowling has stated that the series drew much of its inspiration from the death of her mother, Anne, at the end of 1990.
I'm hoping to get back into creative writing of my own before long. Meanwhile, I'm continuing the weekly Torah summaries at least into Exodus, because I want to get myself firmly grounded in this most foundational of all literary works. [430]